diff --git a/TranslationManager.cpp b/TranslationManager.cpp
index fa39d35a..e7fc52aa 100644
--- a/TranslationManager.cpp
+++ b/TranslationManager.cpp
@@ -25,19 +25,12 @@ bool TranslationManager::setLanguage(const QString &language)
         return true;
     }
 
-    // translations are compiled into app binary
-#ifdef Q_OS_MACX
-    QString dir = qApp->applicationDirPath() + "/../Resources/translations";
-#else
     QString dir = qApp->applicationDirPath() + "/translations";
-#endif
-
     QString filename = "monero-core_" + language;
 
-    qDebug("%s: loading translation file '%s' from '%s",
+    qDebug("%s: loading translation file '%s' from '%s'",
            __FUNCTION__, qPrintable(filename), qPrintable(dir));
 
-
     if (m_translator->load(filename, dir)) {
         qDebug("%s: translation for language '%s' loaded successfully",
                __FUNCTION__, qPrintable(language));
@@ -45,11 +38,24 @@ bool TranslationManager::setLanguage(const QString &language)
         qApp->installTranslator(m_translator);
         emit languageChanged();
         return true;
-    } else {
-        qCritical("%s: error loading translation for language '%s'",
-                  __FUNCTION__, qPrintable(language));
-        return false;
     }
+
+    qDebug("%s: couldn't load translation file '%s' from '%s'",
+           __FUNCTION__, qPrintable(filename), qPrintable(dir));
+    qDebug("%s: loading embedded translation file '%s'",
+           __FUNCTION__, qPrintable(filename));
+
+    if (m_translator->load(filename, ":")) {
+        qDebug("%s: embedded translation for language '%s' loaded successfully",
+               __FUNCTION__, qPrintable(language));
+        qApp->installTranslator(m_translator);
+        emit languageChanged();
+        return true;
+    }
+
+    qCritical("%s: error loading translation for language '%s'",
+              __FUNCTION__, qPrintable(language));
+    return false;
 }
 
 TranslationManager *TranslationManager::instance()
diff --git a/monero-wallet-gui.pro b/monero-wallet-gui.pro
index 45561ba8..fff30254 100644
--- a/monero-wallet-gui.pro
+++ b/monero-wallet-gui.pro
@@ -327,38 +327,7 @@ macx {
 
 
 # translation stuff
-TRANSLATIONS =  \ # English is default language, no explicit translation file
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core.ts \ # translation source (copy this file when creating a new translation)
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_ar.ts \ # Arabic
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_pt-br.ts \ # Portuguese (Brazil)
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_de.ts \ # German
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_eo.ts \ # Esperanto
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_es.ts \ # Spanish
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_fi.ts \ # Finnish
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_fr.ts \ # French
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_hr.ts \ # Croatian
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_id.ts \ # Indonesian
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_hi.ts \ # Hindi
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_it.ts \ # Italian
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_ja.ts \ # Japanese
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_nl.ts \ # Dutch
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_pl.ts \ # Polish
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_ru.ts \ # Russian
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_sv.ts \ # Swedish
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_zh-cn.ts \ # Chinese (Simplified-China)
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_zh-tw.ts \ # Chinese (Traditional-Taiwan)
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_he.ts \ # Hebrew
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_ko.ts \ # Korean
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_ro.ts \ # Romanian
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_da.ts \ # Danish
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_cs.ts \ # Czech
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_sk.ts \ # Slovak
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_sl.ts \ # Slovenian
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_rs.ts \ # Serbian
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_cat.ts \ # Catalan
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_tr.ts \ # Turkish
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_ua.ts \ # Ukrainian
-                $$PWD/translations/monero-core_pt-pt.ts \ # Portuguese (Portugal)
+TRANSLATIONS = $$files($$PWD/translations/monero-core_*.ts)
 
 CONFIG(release, debug|release) {
     DESTDIR = release/bin
@@ -371,14 +340,7 @@ CONFIG(release, debug|release) {
 #    LANGREL_OPTIONS = -markuntranslated "MISS_TR "
 }
 
-TARGET_FULL_PATH = $$OUT_PWD/$$DESTDIR
-TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR = $$TARGET_FULL_PATH/translations
-
-macx {
-    TARGET_FULL_PATH = $$sprintf("%1/%2/%3.app", $$OUT_PWD, $$DESTDIR, $$TARGET)
-    TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR = $$TARGET_FULL_PATH/Contents/Resources/translations
-}
-
+TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR = $$OUT_PWD/translations
 
 !ios {
     isEmpty(QMAKE_LUPDATE) {
@@ -405,13 +367,29 @@ macx {
 
     QMAKE_EXTRA_TARGETS += langupd deploy deploy_win
     QMAKE_EXTRA_COMPILERS += langrel
+
+    # Compile an initial version of translation files when running qmake
+    # the first time and generate the resource file for translations.
+    !exists($$TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR) {
+        mkpath($$TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR)
+    }
+    qrc_entry = "<RCC>"
+    qrc_entry += '  <qresource prefix="/">'
+    write_file($$TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR/translations.qrc, qrc_entry)
+    for(tsfile, TRANSLATIONS) {
+        qmfile = $$TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR/$$basename(tsfile)
+        qmfile ~= s/.ts$/.qm/
+        system($$LANGREL $$LANGREL_OPTIONS $$tsfile -qm $$qmfile)
+        qrc_entry = "    <file>$$basename(qmfile)</file>"
+        write_file($$TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR/translations.qrc, qrc_entry, append)
+    }
+    qrc_entry = "  </qresource>"
+    qrc_entry += "</RCC>"
+    write_file($$TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR/translations.qrc, qrc_entry, append)
+    RESOURCES += $$TRANSLATION_TARGET_DIR/translations.qrc
 }
 
 
-
-
-
-
 # Update: no issues with the "slow link process" anymore,
 # for development, just build debug version of libwallet_merged lib
 # by invoking 'get_libwallet_api.sh Debug'
@@ -432,7 +410,7 @@ macx {
 }
 
 win32 {
-    deploy.commands += windeployqt $$sprintf("%1/%2/%3.exe", $$OUT_PWD, $$DESTDIR, $$TARGET) -release -qmldir=$$PWD
+    deploy.commands += windeployqt $$sprintf("%1/%2/%3.exe", $$OUT_PWD, $$DESTDIR, $$TARGET) -release -no-translations -qmldir=$$PWD
     # Win64 msys2 deploy settings
     contains(QMAKE_HOST.arch, x86_64) {
         deploy.commands += $$escape_expand(\n\t) $$PWD/windeploy_helper.sh $$DESTDIR